4 Tips for Improved Video in eLearning

The online video revolution that has occurred in the past decade influences many aspects of our lives, and that includes eLearning. Video has a growing presence in eLearning courses, and that’s for good reason. It’s a very effective medium that combines the best aspects of audio, picture, and plain ol’ face-to-face teaching. You can get your learners up close and personal with things that might not be practical in the real world.

Are you teaching something about insects but don’t have the means or the malice to gather everyone together so they can look at a poisonous beetle two inches from their face to count its feelers? Just get a video camera and record the beetle so everyone can see a blown up image of that lil guy.

Are you making a course about lava, but you aren’t comfortable with bringing your learners to the lip of an active volcano to gaze into the bubbling inferno beneath? Just show them video of the red hot molten rock in action. Easy, safe, and uniform.

Here are some tips to keep in mind for your next video course.

Script it Out

If you’ve ever played the board game Risk, you know that it pays to have a strategy. It just won’t pan out well if you go in from the beginning deciding to wing it, because when you wing it, you inevitably try to conquer Asia far too early in the game, forgetting that it has way too many entry points to defend and now you’ve lost India, you fool! None of this would have happened if you planned ahead!

Bringing it back to eLearning videos, you need to have a plan there as well: a script. Unless you’re a professional improviser, it shows when you try to wing it. That’s why it’s important to get your thoughts organized before you sit down in front of a camera. When you don’t have to create the words on the spot, you have more time to pick better words and present more eloquently. Be careful though: you don’t want to just mindlessly read the script with absolutely no feeling like you aren’t even processing the words before you say them. You’re not a middle school class president.

Good Audio Goes a Long Way

Being someone who has dabbled in video myself, bad audio is the bane of my existence. No, I’m not one of those weirdos who insists that music must be listened to in the format it was originally created for; I don’t have Mozart recorded on a wax cylinder. It really doesn’t take much to please me, but when audio doesn’t please me, it really sounds like garbage.

When I first started playing with a camcorder with my high school buddies, I noticed that the cheap built-in mic on the camera produced audio that, putting it frankly, sounded like it was coming out of a cell phone speaker inside a crumpled soda can at the bottom of dirty swimming pool. It wasn’t until I was older, playing with more professional toys, that I realized that you often get what you pay for in terms of recording devices.

Whenever you use audio in a video, make double sure that everyone who will be speaking is properly mic’d, and that the ambient noise doesn’t muddy the track. Pick a recording environment that doesn’t have cars honking and monkeys bashing cymbals—unless of course those are the sounds you need. Do your best to isolate the sounds (speaking is recorded with no ambient noise on one track, sound effects on another, etc.).

Make Use of Video Editors

Edit, edit, edit!

It’s incredibly difficult to make a quality video in one take. It places stress on everyone in front of the camera who are doing their best to sound spontaneous and eloquent at the same time, and it places stress on everyone behind the camera who are trying to handle the equipment in such a way that it captures everything in a crisp, intelligible way.

That’s where editing software comes in. Editing allows you to take the best moments from each take and string them together as a coherent whole. There are also some things you just can’t do properly without editing. For example, lower thirds and overlays, which you can add to an eLearning video as an explanation of what’s on screen, or as a place marker signaling the beginning of a new section of the course.

You might also consider adding subtitles to your production, a process that most video editing programs have made easier throughout the years. While this can be a tremendous boon for both the hearing impaired and those who don’t speak the language of the audio, it’s also helpful to everyone else. I’m an English speaker and not hearing impaired, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been watching a movie in my native tongue where an important line was glossed over because the actor either mumbled or doubled down on a bad fake accent. In cases like those, I was very thankful for closed captioning. That’s not to say you’ll be making eLearning videos with incoherent speech, but you never know when someone might need a little help hearing what you said.

File Size Matters

Since I first owned an iPod, I’ve realized how much more space video files take up when compared to audio. You’re thinking that you’re going to cram your entire movie library onto one device, but it turns out you need to shuffle things around as you want them because just a handful of feature-length movies will crowd it up pretty quick.

This is important when dealing with the video components of your course. You can’t make the file too big, because then it takes up exorbitant amounts of space and a month of Sundays to buffer. You also can’t make it too small because then the video quality is compromised. One solution to this problem is using a video streaming website such as YouTube to host your videos. Many online video websites allow you to embed videos into other programs to play them natively. This allows you to put a YouTube video directly into your course without having to exit the program and boot up your browser.

What are your best tips for making stellar videos? Let us know in the comments!

8 Comments

Rob Alton
on March 28, 2016 at 7:42 am

Thanks for that interesting piece. I have a few other tips.

1) Use a list of bullets or headings instead of a detailed script. Most people sound very stilted when they read from a script. This can put learners off and devalues the piece of media you are producing. Pin bullet points on large pieces of paper at eye level – this stops your ‘actor’ looking up and down.

2) Consider using actors instead of people from the office. If you have a limited budget, then reach out to your local college drama department as there will often be students who need to get some experience (necessary if they are to get a union card.) They won’t cost the earth.

3) Keep video and audio pieces short. Anything longer than a few minutes or so will turn off learners. If you have a lot of information to get across, then deliver a number of short clips – you can create links to these and, hey presto, you have a level one interactive video.

4) If you can’t afford to use a studio, then record your material in a small room. You will get an empty feel if you use a large room. Put some old sheets/quilts over hard surfaces as a baffle.

5) Avoid filming actors against a distracting background – snazzy wallpaper, untidy bookshelves, people moving about in the office. Shooting against a plain background can look very professional.

6) Keep a note of the number of takes you do and make a note of time codes – this makes editing easier. Keep recording if the actor fluffs something. Stopping and starting can mean that you lose momentum.

7) Keep a large glass of lukewarm water for the actor to sip – this will loosen their vocal chords. Cold, fizzy drinks are not a good idea – burps and constricted vocal chords can result.

Hope this helps.

Rob Alton

Brother Thomas
on March 28, 2016 at 8:24 am

These are fantastic tips, Rob! Thanks for sharing!

Tracy Thomas
on March 31, 2016 at 2:38 am

Useful article – one important aspect is the camera you use. If you are doing this yourself without a professional cameraman, then you’re probably using the camera on your device – ipad or even phone. The quality is excellent these days – but some additional tips for you:

Things to note when filming with an iPhone:

Use a tripod

Use lights or get the natural lighting right

Record separate audio and clapperboard it

Slo-mo feature is fabulous – for action shots only

Use a tripod to ensure you aren’t stretching the iphones capability to remedy your shaky hands! And don’t use zoom! Move the tripod closer or further away to get the shot you want

Use a lighting kit – you can get some decent kits for between £70 and £300 here in the UK depending on what you’re trying to achieve.

Record your audio on a separate mic and link it to the timing of the camera audio so you can replace it in the edit.

Use the slo-mo when your script suggests it might be a good idea – action shots work well, non-action shots don’t!

Toby
on March 31, 2016 at 2:45 am

100% agree with Rob.

A couple of extra things to think about:

1. Spend money on good audio equipment – a great mic is well worth the money. Even modern smartphones make great video but people are more distracted by bad audio.

2. When filming use the ‘power of thirds’. This means what that grid is for on your camera! try and keep your main focus (the person) in the left or right cross-hairs as this is just visually easier on a watcher.

3. Practice, practice, practice – you’ll be amazed at what you miss when filming that you see when editing. Things like the white balance, focus and background become extremely important.

Kevin Fox
on March 31, 2016 at 2:53 am

As a professional video editor for 11 years who just transitioned into a job as the director of e-learning, I can’t stress enough how important the audio is. With my background, you can imagine that our new courses are very “video-centric” and capturing good audio is paramount to putting on a good presentation. Buy the best wireless microphone system(s) you can afford and learn to use them. A decent wired microphone for narration is a very inexpensive tool to have as well. Obviously, you need to be sure your camera has jacks for external microphones. Some consumer oriented cameras will require adapters to work with external mics, but these are readily available. As was mentioned by Sean, pay attention to your audio background. Ambiance can either add or subtract from your scene. If a loud traffic background is what you need, be sure to mic your talent either with a lav (body mic) or just put a mic in their hand. Isolating their voice from the background will go a long way towards making your video sound professional (and be watchable and understandable). Get it right in the field, and you will have a lot less work in post (editing). For narration without a studio, here’s a crazy idea that really works well. The deadest (quietest) room in your house is usually the bedroom or walk-in closet. Do your narrations there with the microphone in front of a rack of clothes or a heavy drapery. This will eliminate almost all reflections and make it sound like a studio recording. (It’s cheaper than a $150.00/hr studio!)

Hope some of these ideas help. Have fun with video. It adds SO much to your projects.

Best,

kfox

Nigel
on March 31, 2016 at 5:13 am

Really excellent tips. I’ll be putting them into action immediately

Brother Thomas
on March 31, 2016 at 7:47 am

So many great tips! Thanks for sharing Tracy, Toby, and Kevin!

Mandi
on April 2, 2016 at 6:19 am

Great tips – I must admit my family do look at me oddly when I emerge from the walk-in robe with microphone, computer and chair! Good studio – and cheap!